On Fridays at 365 Less Things I share with you my favourite comments from my wonderful readers and my favourite web finds of the week. I hope you will enjoy them as much as I did.
Favourite Comments. Enjoy!
Jane tells us about how she isn’t all that comfortable describing herself as minimalist in this comment. I don’t use that title to describe myself either as I don’t believe it is true for me. I am working on a new title.
Like me Megan has become immune to advertising. Read her comment here.
I was amused by Jane’s term Relocation Sorcery. Read what she means by that in this comment
Bergen has some good uses for a smart phone that could potentially help avoid clutter and to save paper. Read about it here.
Favourite Web Finds. Happy reading!
Here is a great article from www.investopedia.com that Wendy F sent through about the cost of your clutter. You might be shocked at how many dollars you are constantly wasting on unused stuff. Before you even take into account the money you may have wasted on it in the first place.
Here is some more great decluttering advice that Wendy F dug up from the archives of Becoming Minimalist
Here is a Ted Talk I though you might enjoy ~Â The Post Crisis ConsumerÂ
Here is a link my husband suggested I share with you all. It is a new challenge happening over at www.bemorewithless.com
Here is another great article on changing your mind.
Today’s Mini Mission
Declutter a item whose most obvious external feature is self advertising. For example T-shirts with the makers name blazoned across them unless of course the maker is paying you to advertise for them.
Today’s Declutter Item
This decluttering effort reduced the wasted space in my house by 2 x 17litres (18qts) plastic storage containers of stuff. These Star Wars toys were much enjoyed back  in the day but have not been used in at least 6 years. When my son said “I don’t know why you insist on keeping them!” that was my cue to get them out of here. I sold them on ebay for him, which reminds me I had better transfer him the money they fetched along with the money for the skateboard deck.
My son’s old Star Wars collection
Eco Tip for the Day
I am sad to say that eating less meat is better for the environment. So if you can try to replace at least a couple of meat meals a week with plant based offerings. I must admit more and more meat has slipped into my diet again lately but for he sake of the environment I will attempt to back off somewhat.
Colleen, as usual you have some great comments and links. I like what Becoming Minimalist says about de-owning. I have been talking to S about this very thing. It’s very easy to organize all you stuff so it is put away neatly out of sight. But why have it if you don’t actually use it? Investopedia got me to thinking about my Dropbox account and whether I really need it. I’m going to be thinking about this in the next few days. John Gerzema had a good talk. I like what he was saying. I am hoping he will be right and things will change and make the difference he is predicting. I’m taking the Reverse 100 Thing Challenge. I just like the idea. I don’t think it will be hard as Mom is in the mood. GRIN!! The last article by Steve is good. I’ve learned to not fight change so much. I don’t let the guilt keep me from making changes I feel the need to make–like getting rid of a major portion of my scrapbooking supplies because I no longer am as involved in it. Great Friday stuff.
I am glad you enjoyed today’s offering Deb J.
I have a question about S. Had you been hoping for a long time that she would come to the conclusion she needed to declutter. I ask this because I have a friend who I think is getting a bit out of control when it comes to clutter. I think it is loneliness and sadness that keeps her bringing stuff in. I share my joy of decluttering with her and she says she understands and takes a few offerings to the thrift shop but I think she brings home more than she lets go.
Colleen, yes I had been hoping for at least 4 years that S would declutter. I know that loneliness and depression about her husbands way of doing things were a big factor for her. I watched her buy, buy, buy scrapbook supplies (that I found still in their sacks after 1-4 years) and other things. She has no children, her husband has been off work for 2-3 years twice since living here, her husband is very messy, and when he does have work it seems to be 4 or more hours away from home so he lives away. She has a big house and only her there most of the time. For years he wouldn’t let her get rid of ANYTHING. He finally seems to see that it’s just junk to them. One of the things that seems to help her is having someone care enough to spend time helping her. I think she is very lonely and she is the type who likes to be around people and that makes it harder.
Sounds all too familiar Deb. Did she approach you to help her or did you offer your help in the hope that she would take you up on the offer?
It was sort of a mutual thing. We had talked about it before and then things got kind of crazy for her. I told her when things calmed down we would start. When she had her breast cancer lumpectomy she decided things would be calmer and she wanted to start.
My now-deceased Mother-in-law would “rescue” stuff from the thrift stores & dollar stores as if she was doing the items a favor.
We all suspect that bringing home more clutter must have offered her some kind of temporary comfort, but in the end it just drained her financially.
We all would offer up any & all support to help reduce the clutter but she would always decline or defer the assistance.
I suspect that aside from her cat, the house felt empty to her, thus she filled it up with cluttery stuff in order for the house to feel full. Ironically though, that’s what deterred & disuaded the family from visiting as much was because of all the stuff. Oh & the cat. Seems everyone but me was severly allergic to that 20 lb blob of a cat.
Hi Jane, I suspect this happens a lot.
Hi – the Reverse 100 Challenge – I think that sounds like a good way to get people kick started into decluttering, probably a bit easy for the seasoned declutterer, but at the end of the day its not a race to the finish line.
I liked the cost of clutter – what an interesting way of looking at it.
The TED clip – unfortunately my computer froze at the half way mark but I found it really interesting.
Actually Moni I think I would find it difficult because I am down to the obscure things that aren’t so obvious any more. When there is a lot of stuff finding 100 things was easy, finding 100 now would take some serious searching.
In fact a friend is being involved in a neighbourhood garage sale next weekend and I am going to join her with some stuff of my own. The only problem is that I have to find enough stuff to make it worth the effort before next weekend. Perhaps I shouldn’t have taken that last load of stuff to the thrift shop this week. I will pull together some of my jewellery that I don’t wear much anymore now that I don’t go out to work.
I like the reverse 100things challenge, though I won’t join, as I just don’t want to accumulate 100 items of dedicated clutter just to take a photo.
I went through my CDs yesterday, though, and got rid of about half of my own. Boyfriend wasn’t quite as ruthless, but got rid of one of his CDs as well. Seems next to nothing compared to my stack, but it is one thing less after all and that is what it is all about after all.
I didnt join it, because I am sure I wont make it to 100 things. although now that I thought of it a bit more, I might actually give it a try. (without taking pictures of course…) it will force me to get rid of those items that I avoided looking at for more than a year now. it might result in rearranging, and/or decluttering (to some degree also replacing for better quality) the furniture in my flat in the beginning of 2013, which would be a nice start for a new year.
congrats to the stack of CDs! and yeah, small progress is better than no progress…
I didn’t join it either, just decided to do it. WIll get rid of things as I go. I don’t like to have them sitting around either. Drives me nuts.
I like the idea of the reverse 100 things challenge too, in general, but wouldn’t want to keep the stuff sitting around somewhere in order to get a photo of it. I like to get rid of things as soon as possible when I declutter them. Otherwise, my husband tends to “rescue” them, and I find them stashed in his shop months later.